You can easily see that he was once a painter of great promise.Irather think it was stolen from him while he was in hospital by those incendiary wretches.I recognized it, however, and bought for a few francs from them what I would have paid HIM a thousand for.""In hospital?" repeated Helen dazedly.
"Yes," said Sir James."The fact is it was the ending of the usual Bohemian artist's life.Though in this case the man was a real artist,--and I believe, by the way, was a countryman of yours.""In hospital?" again repeated Helen."Then he was poor?""Reckless, I should rather say; he threw himself into the fighting before Paris and was badly wounded.But it was all the result of the usual love affair--the girl, they say, ran off with the usual richer man.At all events, it ruined him for painting; he never did anything worth having afterwards.""And now?" said Helen in the same unmoved voice.
Sir James shrugged his shoulders."He disappeared.Probably he'll turn up some day on the London pavement--with chalks.That sketch, by the way, was one that had always attracted me to his studio--though he never would part with it.I rather fancy, don't you know, that the girl had something to do with it.It's a wonderfully realistic sketch, don't you see; and I shouldn't wonder if it was the girl herself who lived behind one of those queer little windows in the roof there.""She did live there," said Helen in a low voice.
Sir James uttered a vague laugh.Helen looked around her.The duchess had quietly and unostentatiously passed into the library, and in full view, though out of hearing, was examining, with her glass to her eye, some books upon the shelves.
"I mean," said Helen, in a perfectly clear voice, "that the young girl did NOT run away from the painter, and that he had neither the right nor the cause to believe her faithless or attribute his misfortunes to her." She hesitated, not from any sense of her indiscretion, but to recover from a momentary doubt if the girl were really her own self--but only for a moment.
"Then you knew the painter, as I did?" he said in astonishment.
"Not as YOU did," responded Helen.She drew nearer the picture, and, pointing a slim finger to the canvas, said:--"Do you see that small window with the mignonette?""Perfectly."
"That was MY room.His was opposite.He told me so when I first saw the sketch.I am the girl you speak of, for he knew no other, and I believe him to have been a truthful, honorable man.""But what were you doing there? Surely you are joking?" said Sir James, with a forced smile.
"I was a poor pupil at the Conservatoire, and lived where I could afford to live.""Alone?"
"Alone."
"And the man was"--
"Major Ostrander was my friend.I even think I have a better right to call him that than you had."Sir James coughed slightly and grasped the lapel of his coat."Of course; I dare say; I had no idea of this, don't you know, when Ispoke." He looked around him as if to evade a scene."Ah! suppose we ask the duchess to look at the sketch; I don't think she's seen it." He began to move in the direction of the library.
"She had better wait," said Helen quietly.
"For what?"
"Until"--hesitated Helen smilingly.
"Until? I am afraid I don't understand," said Sir James stiffly, coloring with a slight suspicion.
"Until you have APOLOGIZED."
"Of course," said Sir James, with a half-hysteric laugh."I do.
You understand I only repeated a story that was told me, and had no idea of connecting YOU with it.I beg your pardon, I'm sure.Ier--er--in fact," he added suddenly, the embarrassed smile fading from his face as he looked at her fixedly, "I remember now it must have been the concierge of the house, or the opposite one, who told me.He said it was a Russian who carried off that young girl.Of course it was some made-up story.""I left Paris with the duchess," said Helen quietly, "before the war.""Of course.And she knows all about your friendship with this man.""I don't think she does.I haven't told her.Why should I?"returned Helen, raising her clear eyes to his.
"Really, I don't know," stammered Sir James."But here she is.Of course if you prefer it, I won't say anything of this to her."Helen gave him her first glance of genuine emotion; it happened, however, to be scorn.
"How odd!" she said, as the duchess leisurely approached them, her glass still in her eye."Sir James, quite unconsciously, has just been showing me a sketch of my dear old mansarde in Paris.Look!
That little window was my room.And, only think of it, Sir James bought it of an old friend of mine, who painted it from the opposite attic, where he lived.And quite unconsciously, too.""How very singular!" said the duchess; "indeed, quite romantic!""Very!" said Sir James.
"Very!" said Helen.
The tone of their voices was so different that the duchess looked from one to the other.
"But that isn't all," said Helen with a smile, "Sir James actually fancied"--"Will you excuse me for a moment?" said Sir James, interrupting, and turning hastily to the duchess with a forced smile and a somewhat heightened color."I had forgotten that I had promised Lady Harriet to drive you over to Deep Hill after luncheon to meet that South American who has taken such a fancy to your place, and Imust send to the stables."
As Sir James disappeared, the duchess turned to Helen."I see what has happened, dear; don't mind me, for I frankly confess I shall now eat my luncheon less guiltily than I feared.But tell me, HOWdid you refuse him?"
"I didn't refuse him," said Helen."I only prevented his asking me.""How?"
Then Helen told her all,--everything except her first meeting with Ostrander at the restaurant.A true woman respects the pride of those she loves more even than her own, and while Helen felt that although that incident might somewhat condone her subsequent romantic passion in the duchess's eyes, she could not tell it.
The duchess listened in silence.
"Then you two incompetents have never seen each other since?" she asked.
"No."
"But you hope to?"
"I cannot speak for HIM," said Helen.